Since Maddie had started over a little while ago, she was just at the point where she noticed the dulling of the beetle eyes. Good. She was catching up now. Maybe she'd even manage to finish shortly after the rest of the class. She stirred in her ground whole beetles and the crup urine (ewww) and watched carefully until the potion turned a bright red. Five stirs, just like the professor had said. There was actually a moment of panic as she waited for the reddening of the potion. Noble had been decent about the first mistake she'd made, but she didn't think he'd be so understanding if she made a second mistake. Everything seemed okay, though.

THANK MERLIN.

Now to add the corpse flower, spadix first, of course. She stirred twice in an anti-clockwise direction. After that, she added in the spathe, stirring three times in a clockwise direction. She'd been nervous that she'd get all that mixed up, but she hadn't. After that first mistake, Noble had pretty much scared her into doing the potion perfectly.

The next step wasn't quite as disgusting as the crup urine, but it was a good second. Nail clippings. At least they were her nail clippings. She sprinkled them in and then began the five minute wait. In the meantime, she used her silver knife to start the process of finely mincing the garlic.